


Sleep on, Dream on

by JemiCrisis



Series: How Love Affects Us [3]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Jeno just cares so much about the dreamies okay he shows that so very much and I’m so soft, M/M, Sad, This was a one shot but I made it multi chaptered, We're sad up in here okay, im so very sorry, soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2020-08-23 08:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20239618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JemiCrisis/pseuds/JemiCrisis
Summary: Jeno just likes watching the Dreamies sleep.





	1. Jeno.

**Author's Note:**

> I mean it’s true, he makes the dreamies go to sleep when he’s drunk and he calls them cute when they sleep the evidence is there!!
> 
> This turns sad so I’m so sorry you can cry with me if you want ;-;

There’s a reason why Jeno stays up so long, playing games late into the night. He prefers being the last one to go to bed. Why? He likes watching the rest of Dream sleep. There’s something comforting about it.

Maybe it’s because they’re in a state of bliss, where their minds and bodies can recharge after a long and stressful day of hard work. Maybe it’s because it’s undeniably cute how they sleep, how Renjun mumbles unintelligible Korean or Mandarin, how Jaemin laughs in his sleep, how Chenle does the dolphin shrieks and always ends up tangling the sheets around him, how Haechan nuzzles his face into the bed, how Jisung just... looks like Jisung, always so cute even when he isn’t trying.

Jeno cares so much about his members, he loves them after all, he can very confidently say that. He loves them so much. He wouldn’t trade anything for them, he wouldn’t want to let go of them. They take up a big place in his heart, just like the rest of NCT do, and his parents, and rest of his biological family, and NCTzens, and his cats.

He goes around each of their rooms, fixing their hair out of their faces and giving them quick light pecks on their skin to say goodnight, before he goes to his own bed to try and sleep, but sleep he won’t.

He’s worried for their future.

Maybe it’s because he knows they’ll take care of themselves just fine, even when he’s gone, because they’re all almost adults now. Even when they’re no longer NCT Dream, but just a part of the bigger NCT scheme. Separated. But they’ll never forget each other. They’ll never forget the memories that they made, as NCT Dream.

He’ll never forget the memories they made, together, even when he graduates, because the same thing happened with Mark. He’ll cry, he’ll suffer, but he’ll survive and remember. He’ll remember the good times they shared, he promises it, right up until he becomes a frail old man. 

Right up until his time in this world counts down to zero.


	2. Haechan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to make this multi chaptered.
> 
> I can't remember if Jeno and Haechan are roommates or not lmao

We are sad before we are happy, that's just how life works, and Jeno knows that, that we have to be sad before we can experience true happiness.

Nowadays he goes around the dorm, tucking the rest of the dreamies into bed before going to bed on his own, just to not get a good night's sleep.

Tonight is different though, he goes back to his room to go to sleep, after making his way around the dorm, and finds that Haechan is up, he looks up from his phone.

"Hey."

"What are you doing up so late?"

"I could say the same to you." Haechan sits up from his bunk. 

"You should sleep." Jeno takes the free spot and sits beside him, puts an arm around his shoulders, gently rubbing it, and brings them closer together.

"So should you." Haechan uses this opportunity to lean his head on Jeno’s shoulder. 

"I haven't been sleeping well..." he admits, because it's the truth. He lies awake at night because his head swims with thoughts about what would happen in the future. The inevitable.

"Neither have I," Haechan breathes out tiredly, he knows that they both won't get any sleep tonight. "do you think any of us do? With what's going to happen again?"

"We can only try, I just hope Chenle and Jisung will be okay..." Jisung will have to suffer this feeling yet another time, it's hard for him, being the current youngest. 

"It'll be harder for them you know? They're young... They've been with us for so long..." Jeno feels Haechan start to shake, and he can only hug him tighter to comfort him, before he starts crying too. Sobbing deep into the night.


	3. Chenle.

There are people who are happy all the time, those who smile through it all. Little does anyone know how wrecked the person is on the inside, how the strength they have to endure sadness is built from within, and that they are ultimately the sore losers, the ones who will crumble to dust.

It's almost 2am when Jeno hears it. Small whines of pain or just suffering in general. It's very easy for him to hear the whimpers, what with the paper thin walls and his inability to sleep for more than a half hour at a time since the conversation with Haechan. Hastily, he throws the covers off his too warm body and scuttles out of the room whilst trying to avoid waking up Haechan. It's bad enough that he had that one night of subpar sleep, Haechan is already busy enough and he doesn't need any more stress through lack of sleep. Jeno treads across the dorm, pinpointing where the noises are coming from.

(Well... he actually knew all along who it was. He didn't need to pinpoint the sound, it just became routine enough for him to know. But let's just gloss over that, shall we?)

Jeno reaches the door where the shrieks are louder than they were previously. He turns the knob and pushes gently, succeeding in not having the door creak like it did the tens if not hundreds of times it did before. Trying to not stumble into any of the clutter the two teenage boys constantly have in their shared room, Jeno makes his way up the ladder of the bunk bed and snuggles up beside the trembling boy. He feels the clutch of hands grip his shirt frantically, as if trying to find an anchor, or stability of any kind. All Jeno can do now is pat the head of the teenager in his arms and just gently cuddle him until whatever nightmare the boy has is gone, stay still for a few hours, then slip away before he gets caught by the manager. You know, his normal routine whenever it came to this one.

What Jeno doesn't expect is for limbs to quickly wrap around him. The feeling of exasperated breath hitting his collar bone as the boy wakes from his dark slumber in a fright. A pair of startled eyes glistening in the faint light to be staring back at him. He can only cup the other's cheek, stroking it affectionately with his thumb. He whispers phrases of encouragement, something to the tune of "we will be alright" or "nothing bad will happen" so to soothe the teenager to sleep once more.

It doesn't work, of course it doesn't. Jeno is only met with a single question from the boy:

"Why must it be like this?"

Now, Jeno wasn't really the type of person to be given this question, but he must answer it nonetheless. He thought for a moment before giving an answer:

"We just... can't stay together forever you know?" He knows it was harsh, he feels the wet tears on the pad of his thumb. He's crying. Jeno made him cry. There just wasn't any other way to get himself out of that, without someone getting hurt. Sometimes, well maybe a lot of the time, ignorance truly is bliss.

"... stupid." Jeno hears him mutter under his breath. "It was stupid of me to ask that." Jeno cradles the boy further into his arms, guiding his head to his own chest. The boy listens to his heartbeat, a comforting signal.

"Let's just enjoy what little we have now, let's be grateful for what we have left." Those were Jeno's last words before he felt the slump of the body against him, whether the other had cried himself to sleep or fell into slumber peacefully he doesn't know. But he'll embrace the time until the hustle and bustle of life begins again.

Most times, Jeno would leave before the schedules start, giving little to no chance to be found out. But something (or someone) is telling him to stay for a while longer, judging by the clasp of arms around his figure.

… and longer it will be, for moments like these don't last for the time we want them to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was longer than I thought it would be. Oh well, Merry Crisis! Happy Christmas and New Year!


End file.
